An Alchemist's Ransom
by GazMembrane
Summary: The Epilogue has been added! It's the next day and life is back to normal...or is it? Join everyone for the conclusion of the story and an answer to all the questions! RoyHawkeye.
1. Chapter1

First and foremost!

Disclaimer: I don't now, nor have I ever owned any character in relation to the anime series Full Metal Alchemist....god knows I want to though...

'**An Alchemist's Ransom'**

Riza walked down the hallway with Black Hayete following at her ankles. Everyday it was the same thing, and for some reason she kept coming back for more. She had to admit that it was entertaining to watch her male counterpart attempt to keep his spotless image while surrounded by officers who seemed to like having fun more than they did performing their duties. A good part of her enjoyed it though, all in all, it was a good group to be a part of.

She opened the door and immediately all eyes shifted towards her, as normal, except this time something was different, the guys were looking at her more expectantly than usual, and this made Riza very uneasy.

"What?" she asked moving past them to her desk, all the while their gaze never shifting away from her. She noted them all look at each other as she placed her coat on the back of her char, then look back at her.

"Lieutenant...uh.." Havok began, but soon quieted down and went to looking at some papers that were laid out in front of him. Riza quirked an eyebrow at that and then made a once-over look around the room. That was when it struck her, and with this realization, her eyes widened slightly and quickly moved to the door that lead into Roy Mustang's office. She knocked one it a couple of times, but got no answer.

"Colonel?" she said knocking a couple more times, by now Black Hayete raised his head up and watched her. Hawkeye knocked again before finally checking the door knob to see if it was locked. She gave the others a sidelong glance and slowly pushed the door open. She moved one hand behind her to the gun she kept holstered there and slowly peaked her head inside the office. Seeing that it was dark, she made a swift move inside the office, pulling out the gun, and holding it in front of her, "Colonel Mustang!" she shouted and quickly looked around the room. To her dismay it was empty. Lowering the guy she moved around the office towards Roy's desk. As she got closer she noticed the window was open and a slight breeze was filling the room. She looked out the window and down to the grounds below, then looked back towards his desk; something wasn't sitting right with her and she then began to leaf through the small stack of papers that rested on the desk. 'Roy...' she though, then moved to pick up a piece of paper that dropped, looking at it she noticed that there were scribbles of writing on it:

"Dear Military Personnel,

Your beloved Colonel Mustang is now in my custody. If you, or anyone else want to see him again, and unharmed, bring exactly $279 to the fountain at noon today."

As soon as she finished reading the note, Riza ran out of the office, into the main room and slammed the paper into the middle of the large table the men were still sitting at. They all looked at her with bewildered eyes, it took a moment for them to see the urgency in Hawkeye's brown eyes.

"Colonel Mustang....has been kidnapped."

Roy gave a long sigh as he sat crouched against a large pile of books, looking up with one eye open he saw the black of the red coat of his captor. The snake that was part of the symbol on the jacket seemed to watch him expectantly, and slowly Roy moved his stare up along the captor's back until his eyes landed on the golden braid.

"Edward..." he said in a low voice, and as soon as he spoke, the Full Metal Alchemist turned around and gave Roy his large 'I'm innocent' smile.

"We'll get you to a more comfortable place in a bit. After they check Hughes' house, his wife agreed to let you hide out there until it's all over. Don't worry, this, will, work!" Edward explained, but even after hearing that much detail Roy wasn't filled with very much confidence. No matter how hard Edward tried, though he always seemed to get the job done, a lot of the time he had to improvise, and in this case, Roy wasn't too thrilled with that idea. He sighed again and slumped against the books and down to the floor, he knew, deep inside himself that he was going to get a well aimed bullet fired between his eyes.

Hawkeye stood at attention at the head of the large table, Black Hayete sat next to her and looked up towards the four men that sat around it. "I want to know the last place each of you saw the Colonel and when that was." Hawkeye explained, looking first to Havok.

"The last time I saw him was this morning; had to ask him about his hot date last night." Havok said smirking, then turned and looked around the table to the others.

"Lieutenant Havok, what time was that at?" Hawkeye said addressing him with a very, almost scary, serious look.

"It had to have been around 7:00 this morning." he said. Hawkeye sighed and looked towards the others, who only shrugged. Farman, Breda, and Fury each explained that they had all last seen Roy right before they all went home for the night. Hawkeye glanced up at the clock and saw that it was 9:15.

"I have a questions," Fury said, adjusting his glasses slightly, "Colonel Mustang's pretty important...I thought he would have been worth more than $279."

"You have a point...but I'm not willing to risk anything. We'll drop off the ransom, but, I will personally ask people in town if they've noticed any suspicious activity in the area. I want you all to do the same, we'll meet back here at 11:00. Dismissed!" and with that, the four men stood up, saluted and quickly filed out of the room. Hawkeye saluted back, but as soon as they were gone, lowered her arm and looked towards the table, "...I'm supposed to protect you..." she whispered, gritting her teeth together and clenching her fists at her sides. Black Hayete looked at her, then stood up on his back feet to lick her right hand. Riza jumped a little, then pet the black and white dog that had become hers.

She walked for a while, but was told nothing about the possible whereabouts of Roy Mustang. Her final stop was at Hughes' house. She knocked on the door and Gracia answered and smiled at her "Good Morning Lieutenant Hawkeye, it's nice to see you again." she said.

"Good morning...have you seen Colonel Mustang by any chance?" Hawkeye asked.

"Not since yesterday afternoon when he stopped by to check up on Elisia and myself like he normally does...why?" she asked.

"He just hasn't checked in with anyone at Head Quarters in awhile," Hawkeye explained, she hated lying to her, but at least it was at least a half-truth.

"That's odd, you two are normally joined at the hip...in fact, I think this is the first time I've seen you without him around." Gracia said smiling, she managed to hold back a slight chuckle as she saw Hawkeye suck up whatever emotional reaction she would have made.

"Thank you for you time." Hawkeye looked down towards Gracia's feet, "Hello Elisia."

"No problem, sorry that I couldn't help more." Gracia said, and with that, Hawkeye saluted, then went back towards her car. Once she got in and sat down, she looked towards the passenger sear, then remembered that no one was there. She then looked forwards and tightly gripped the steering wheel and tried to calm herself down, she needed to keep a level head and to stay focused. But when she looked over again, she found it even harder to keep her emotions contained, 'the seat's empty...' she though. Riza lowered her head between her arms and fought back a few tears that were gathering from the fear that was building inside of her. For as long as she could remember, Roy Mustang had always been there with her, for her to protect, but now, he had disappeared before she had even gotten in today and a welt of guilt was quickly starting to overwhelm her. She sat there for a few minutes before finally turning on the car and driving away.

Roy stood up and stretched after Havok left from asking Scieszka if she had seen Roy, or had heard anything about his possible whereabouts. She had performed beautifully and though it was probably eating away at her, Havok managed to see through her lies.

"All right!" Edward said turning to face Roy after watching Havok walk down the street, "It's almost 11:00, we need to get to Hughes', then once there, we'll disguise Al and he'll pick up the ransom money and leave the next note." Edward explained. When Roy heard the part about Edward's suit of armor little brother was going to be the one to pick up the money he felt his insides turn. Looking over, even Al seemed a little shocked to hear that part of the plan; which made Roy feel even worse.

"How do you expect me to get the money without anyone recognizing me?" Al asked pointing to himself.

"Don't worry Al, I have it all worked out, we just need to get to Gracia's and quickly if it's going to work right." Edward said giving a wink to his brother.

'I'm so sorry Riza...' Roy thought to himself as he pictured Edward's brother wearing a large pair of glasses and a fake mustache, sneaking up to get the ransom and the entire group of military personnel watching. Of course, the part of his vision that scared him more than anything was when Hawkeye's twitched and she pulled out her gun and fired at himself.

After taking a few moment to gather their things, and to also formulate a plan as to how they were going to even get to Hughes' house, the three of them left via the roof. They were careful to stay under the eaves, that way no one would at least see Roy (seeing Al would be kind of hard not to miss) Once they jumped over enough houses, businesses, and what-not, then made it into Hughes' and Gracia's back yard. Because she didn't expect to see 3 people, one a large suit of armor, little Elicia began to cry loudly for her mother, who came running.

"Oh...I thought you three would at least use the front do." Gracia slightly scolded as she picked up Elicia and tried to calm her down.

"We're sorry." Edward said scratching the back of his head, Al just bowed obsessively trying to beg for forgiveness. Roy simply stood there for a moment, then went quickly over to Elicia to try desperately to calm her down. It took a few minutes, but after she saw Roy her eyes widened and she gave a small, cautious smile.

"It's all right," Gracia said smiling to the boys, "Come in, everything's almost ready. It's good you waited as long as you did, you just missed Riza." She explained as she walked into the house, the guys followed her inside, Roy hesitating once he heard they had just missed Hawkeye.

Once they were in and somewhat settled into a small room upstairs, Gracia walked in holding what appeared to be a large piece of brown fabric. Roy quirked up his eyebrow at the item, then a wave of dread swept over him, 'what if Edward expects his brother to run up with a sheet over his head...yeah...that won't be obvious at all...' he thought.

"Alphonse, will you please come here for a moment?" Gracia asked, and the almost always compliant Al stood up and walked over to her, as he did she unfolded what appeared to be a huge brown trench coat. "Hold out your arms please." she said with a smile and she then began to put the jacket on Al. Both Edward and Roy seemed very impressed by what they were watching, the coat was baggy enough that many of the sharp pieces of metal couldn't be noticed, and it was long enough that only the bottom of Al's feet could be seen.

"Look! Look!" Al cheered turning around to see Edward, "I'm wearing a coat again!" he giggled a little and sort of played with the long sides of the jacket. Edward watched his brother and laughed a bit.

"Hey...what about his face?" Edward asked looking towards Gracia.

"Don't worry," she said pulling out a large brimmed hat, then turned to Al and placed it on his head, turning it downwards so that a shadow was cast over his face. "I took care of everything." she said smiling. "Have fun, I need to put Elicia down for her nap." Gracia said then turned and left the room.

Al seemed quite content to just keep wearing to coat, and Edward seemed quite entertained just to watch. Roy Mustang on the other hand moved to a chair and sat down, leaning it back against a wall and sighing deeply. He wasn't even sure what was making him do what he was doing, but he figured it would be a lot better than just coming out in front of everyone. Then he thought of something, and it was concluded in his mind that it was indeed something very important and he turned to Edward. "Hey," he said.

"What?" Edward asked turning to look at him, Al didn't even seem to care that there were other people in the room, he was wearing a coat, and a hat and he was happy.

"You said a second note...shouldn't you write that?" Roy asked and Edward stopped and blinked a couple times, then suddenly remembered that he did need to write another note before sending his brother on his merry way. Coming to that realization to seemed to pull a pen and a piece of paper out of no where and slam it down on a table in front of Roy, moving a chair over for himself.

"What do you want from them in this one?" Edward asked holding the pen, ready to write.

"Hmm..." it took Roy a moment to think of the right words in his head, "I want to know what her size is. And I need to know before 5:00." he said, Edward took the information in for a second then scribbled some words onto the paper and jumped up from his seat.

"All right!" he said, then turned to Al, "Here, your time is now, go my brother I--" he was going to continue but Al still seemed too happy to care. "Al...hey...AL!" he shouted, and with that his brother seemed snapped out of his dream. "Take the note and go...oh...wait...I know!" Edward snapped his fingers together and quickly turned around and in one fluid motion managed to snatch up the watch that all State Alchemists were given upon admission to the military from Roy's pocket.

"Hey!" Roy said in protest and tried to reach for it.

"You'll get it back and you know it." Edward said then tossed it over to Al, "paperweight." Al then nodded and moved out of the room, his steps down the stairs could almost shake the house and both Roy and Edward hoped it wouldn't wake up Elicia. They then both moved to the window and watched Al head out into the street, the coat did him well and both of them were rather impressed at just how good of a job Gracia had done. Roy sighed and moved back to his chair and leaned back again.

"What exactly did you put in that note?" He asked looking at Edward.

"I put in what you told me to, of course, I had to add a few words in order to make it more menacing, but other than that...yeah...what you told me to put." Edward said turning around and leaning against the windowsill. Now all they could do...was wait.


	2. Chapter2

An Alchemist's Ransom

-Chapter 2-

Havok moved towards the fountain, the brown paper bag held at his side, all the while he was trying to figure out how he had gotten dragged into dropping off the ransom. He could almost understand why Hawkeye couldn't do it, but he had a hard time trying to figure out how he was stuck with the short end of the stick. Nervously he placed the bag next to him on the cement bench then cat down, crossing his arms in front of his check.

From the sides, Hawkeye, Fury, and Harmon all watch Havok anxiously from the corner of an alleyway, "Why isn't he moving?" Fury asked quietly, taking a half step back.

"Trying to be a hero I presume..." Harmon mumbled. The two men face faulted while Hawkeye just stood with her back against the cement wall. They waited for several minutes and no one showed up to claim the bag, and finally they called Havok back over and turned to leave for headquarters. Just as they were about to pile into the car, Hawkeye stopped and peered back down the alley.

"You guys go ahead, I'm going to wait." she said turning back to them.

"Are you sure Lieutenant?" Harmon asking, "If the Colonel found out..." he started, but cut himself off seeing Hawkeye's cold stare.

"I'm doing my job." she said, then turned and went back down the alley.

As soon as she was back in position and looked around the corner, she watched a bulky figure walking down the street wearing a large, brown trench coat. he stood out as odd, then again, a lot of people in the city did too, and because of that, Hawkeye didn't think much about it, until she looked at the fountain and saw that the bag was missing. Quickly she went over and saw another piece of paper and as she got even closer she saw the glint of something metallic holding the paper down. Her heart sank when she saw the State Alchemists' pocket watch on top of the paper, and as she picked them both up she realized that the same scribbled writing as before was also on this paper and as Riza began to read the note she began angry and far more worried:

"_Military Personnel,_

_Your charity is greatly appreciated, for you next task, we ask for some assistance from the enchanting Riza Hawkeye. We are asking her for a few key numbers. (We believe she knows which ones we're asking about.) Please delivery them back here at 3:17 this afternoon. Only two more deliveries, and the precious Roy Mustang will be returned."_

Riza gave the letter an odd look, then began to walk towards head quarters. Holding the watch in one hand, the letter in the other, she moved quickly towards the large gray building. She didn't even seem to notice that she past Gracia's house, nor did she see the figure of the bulky man in the upstairs window. Her mind was focused on getting Roy back, unharmed, even if it meant given the captor her dress size, 'pervert...'was the only thing she could think, and while she walked she clenched the letter tightly in her left hand.

"You asked her for her what?!" Roy shouted at Edward, the man was fuming, and it was because of this outburst that caused Edward to question the origins of Roy's title of 'The Flame Alchemist'

"Relax, it's all part of the plan." Edward said trying to calm him down.

"You could have simply asked if it was small, medium, or large! What kind of small pervert lives in that strange head of yours!" Roy shouted back.

"If you had specified what you wanted _BEFORE_ I wrote the note, I would have put it down, you just asked for measurements, and don't call me super tiny!" Edward shouted back.

"...guys..." Al said with a nervous tone before he glanced out the window briefly to notice Hawkeye walking by, obviously upset. "She looks sad..." he whispered, then looked back to Roy and Edward and felt the sudden urge to run very far away. They were in a grapple, Roy had one hand pulled back wit his fingers ready to snap at any given moment, filling the whole room with flames; Edward had his arms in such a way that he could clap and put them into the floor and cause the room to suffer a very similar fate to what Roy would give it.

They both stopped though, as if frozen in that position when they heard Al after he looked out the window. As soon as Roy figured out what had been said, he shoved Edward to the floor and ran to the window. She was almost out of eye shot by the time he got there and slumped to his knees.

"I'm such a bastard..." he said to himself, "she won't be happy...she's going to shoot me...repeatedly...in the head..." he said, and with each emphasis of the coming pain he felt a greater sense of dread. Edward and Al looked at one another, they wanted to say something to comfort him, but they were both pretty sure he was right.

They sat in silence for a few moment before a knocking was heard at the door and Gracia made her way inside with Elicia at her side. The guys looked over and the air seemed to calm down as they all saw the tray of sandwiches she was holding in front of her.

"Thought you guys might be hungry." she said smiling as she walked to the center of the room and place the tray on a small table.

"Thanks!" both Edward and Al said. Roy didn't seem too excited and turned back towards t he window.

"I shink ee's aving econd ought," Edward said as he shoved a sandwich in his mouth. It took Gracia a minute to figure out what exactly he had just said, them moved over and knelt beside Roy.

"If you back out now she'll just be even more upset, and you'll get even more bullets shot into you." she said, Roy looked like he thought for a moment, then nodded.

"I know...this still isn't a very easy day." he said looked to Gracia.

"You'll do fine...Maes would be very proud of you." Gracia said managing a smile and looking over at Elicia who had helped herself to one of the sandwiches.

"I told her she could have mine." Al said noticing Gracia's look.

"...he was always talking about how I need to settle down...come to think about it...Hawkeye hung up on him once...or twice...maybe more." Roy said, simply looking back made him feel somewhat more confident, "I just always associated it with me not getting any work done otherwise."

"See, it'll be fine Just try and stay relaxed." Gracia said as she stood up, she placed a hand on Roy's shoulder as a for of reassurance, she then turned and walked over to pick up the tray from the table then went towards the door.

"Here Mr. Mustang!" Elicia said as she skipped over to him and held up the last sandwich.

"Thank you Elicia." he said giving her a slight smile at which seeing this, the girl's cheeks reddened, and she gave a slightly squeak, then ran to her mother's side.

"Don't have too much fun. Let me know when I can help out more." Gracia said, then left the room, shutting the door behind her.

Roy sighed and gave Edward a hard stare, he was still upset, but wasn't about to set fire to his flesh; seeing both Gracia and Elicia reminded him that there were people in the house, people he cared about, and had silently promised Maes Hughes he would protect.

"We have a lot of time..." Al said looking to Edward, "Why did you give them such a large gap this time?" he asked.

"Because I figure they'll intensify their search now that the person's asking for more ransom," he winked at that, "Not to mention, Hawkeye will be having a hard enough time trying to figure out why they'll want her dress size. I just figured I'd be nice this time." Edward explained leaning back a bit.

Hawkeye's eyebrow twitched as she looked down at the slightly crinkled piece of paper. Black Hayete looked up at her curiously from his position on the floor. She didn't notice Fury walk in carrying a slightly steaming mug in front of him. He carefully placed it in front of her and took a couple steps back, half expecting her to jump up and pull her gun as an automatic relation. It both relaxed and disturbed him when she slowly raised her head and simply looked at the cup.

"...Lieutenant..." Fury said very concerned at her reaction, after he spoke she moved her gaze up to see him, then shook her head when she fully realized that she was in the presence of another human begin. She then sat up fully in her chair and picked up the cup of coffee.

"Yes Major?" she asked looking at him. Now Fury was always a very kind, and soft spoken officer, and it was almost as if he could read some people like a book, but not usually Riza Hawkeye, she had always been someone who seemed to be very duty oriented, and there was normally nothing about her to read...but now.

"I was just going to ask you what the next move was." Fury said, "and to bring you something to drink." he said giving her a slight smile. It was strange for him to be in a situation like this, mostly because he'd never seen Hawkeye like this before.

"Thanks..." she said, then sighed and looked back at the newest ransom letter.

"What do you think they really want?" Fury asked moving over to pet Black Hayete.

"I'm not sure..." Hawkeye said sitting back up, "First they ask for an odd amount of money...now..." she twitched slightly again. Fury stood up and glanced at the note, he didn't take too much of a look at it, all he needed to see were the words 'Hawkeye" and "numbers" and he knew something was up.

"No wonder you weren't too thrilled when you came back." Fury said pulling up a chair. Hawkeye nodded slightly moving one hand to her pocket to grip onto the pocket watch that had held the note down.

"Lieutenant!" a male voice shouted as Harmon ran into the room, "We have a problem..."

"...we have a lot of those..." Hawkeye said giving him an odd look.

"No...witnesses around the city say they haven't seen Colonel Mustang, but..." he said waiting to make sure the two officers were listening, "They've seen Scar."

"Scar!" Fury said quickly standing up out of his sear. Hawkeye only gripped the watch tighter and glared at the note.

"Harmon, go send out a defense team, find him and get him out of the city." Hawkeye said standing up, she then turned to Fury, "have the other up the urgency in the search of Colonel Mustang...now more than ever we can't risk Scar finding him." Hawkeye ordered. Fury nodded, then both men saluted. "Move out!" Hawkeye ordered, and with that, both men turned and hurried out of the room.

Seeing that Fury had actually closed the door behind him, Hawkeye pulled the State Alchemist's pocket watch and just stared at it, "...Roy..." she said, then lost it as she fell back into her seat. She held the pocket watch close to her and lowered her head and let a few of the frightened tear cross the threshold of her tightly closed eyes. Black Hayete sat up and rested her head on her left and just wait for her to let all that was going to come out go.


	3. Chapter3

An Alchemist's Ransom

-Chapter 3-

They sat in silence for almost an hour, simply waiting for the next time Al would have to go out and pick up the next ransom. Eventually they needed to crack the window and let some fresh air in. it was around 2:00 when Al noticed the sudden rise in commotion outside. He motioned for Edward to come over and check it out, just to see if it was something they should be bothered by.

"What the...?" Edward mumbled under his breath watching the military vehicles speeding down the street while others stayed at the corners of intersections. Groups of personnel moved into the mail streets, checking out alleyway entrances along with several other individuals that went up to houses and knocked on the doors.

"Colonel Mustang!" Al exclaimed turning to him. Roy opened his eyes as he was leaned back in the chair again, then stood up and started over towards the window while Al turned back to watch more.

"...that can't be good." Roy said as he peered between Edward and Al.

"Isn't it just them looking for you?" Edward asked looking over his shoulder to Roy.

"Some of it probably, but there's way too much force to simply be a search for me, they wouldn't have it be that open to the public either. They also wouldn't have told that many officers what's going on, keep a low profile on things. Something else must be very wrong." Roy explained never looking away from the window. They all watched for a few moments, then quickly ducked down as one of the lower ranked officers started coming towards the house.

They could hear muffled voices coming from below them, the man's seemed very harsh and urgent as he talked to Gracia. The man stayed for only a few minutes, then left, moving towards the next house. The three of them moved away from the window entirely as they heard quick steps coming up the starts a couple minutes after Gracia closed the door.

"Guys!" she said as she burst into the room, drawing their full attention, "The officer just told me that Scar has been seen in the area and that they're putting a lock down on every building in the city." Gracia explained.

"What?!" Both Edward and Al shouted.

"Scar!" Roy said straightening his stance to attention, "I have to get back to the officers."

"Are you nuts!" Edward shouted, "Hawkeye has your watch, how do you expect to do anything against him. I'll go and figure out what's going on and where the others are."

"Edward!" Al said, "If you go Scar will kill you! He'll kill you both, you're both State Alchemists!" he said bringing both his hands in front of him.

"Maybe you should all just stay here...the officer said that they're going to be sending a task force out to take care of him and get him out of the city." Gracia explained.

"Did the officer happen to mention who's heading up that force?" Roy asked turning back to Gracia.

"...no he didn't...I'm sorry." he said noticing the sudden rise in Roy's concern.

"But...if Hawkeye's heading that investigation, she'll be in more danger than before." Roy mumbled, clenching his fists tightly at his sides.

"I'll be quick, it shouldn't take me too long to find that party." Edward said moving towards the door, "besides, any opportunity to see Scar get kicked out of a city by people who don't even know how to use Alchemy is something I won't pass up, especially in a time of martial law." he went on flashing an evil grin.

"Edward..." Gracia said watching him. Al was obviously going to protest, but before he could even say anything to object, Edward was down the stairs and out the door. Roy moved over to the window and watched as Edward moved out of the house and ducked into the shadows of an alley.

Riza paced back and forth in the mail office area. She hated staying behind, and a large part of her was becoming increasingly angry at the whole 'Roy Situation'; if he hadn't been taken she wouldn't be where she was right now, she wouldn't be worried, she wouldn't be scared, and most of all, she'd know exactly where he was.

She almost jumped when she heard the phone ring and she had to calm herself down for a moment before she actually picked up the receiver. "Hawkeye here." she said, she kept a hand over her chest as she tried to slow her now racing heart, "Edward? Where are you?" she asked, there was a moment of pausing before she continued, "Risenbool? Oh, all right...no sorry, he's not here.....out on business......not sure when he'll be back.....sorry I have to go." she started to ball up one of her hands into a fist as Edward began to ask about Roy, "We're in an emergency state......Good bye Edward." with that she slammed the phone down. She stood there for a moment, then went back to pacing, with the Elric brothers in Risenbool, the Scar situation became all the more worse.

Edward hung up the restaurant's phone and turned back to the owner, "Thanks, you just helped out a lot more than you think." he said, then quickly slipped out of the door. He walked down the street for a bit, then ducked back into an alley as he saw a small collection of military officers turn a corner and start down the block. As they past, he recognized one of them to be Warrant Officer Farman, and quickly came to the conclusion this was part of the task force sent after Scar.

He watched them walk by, then started to sneak his way back to Hughes' house. As he kept to the side streets, he was careful to make sure that he wasn't seen by anyone, and that he was well aware of who was around him. Edward wasn't sure what time it was when he finally saw Hughes' house again, and he was very quick to sneak around the back and into Gracia's back yard. He tapped on the glass door and she was very quick to let him in.

"Oh good." she said as she shut the door and latched it.

"Told you I'd be all right." Edward said giving her a thumbs up. She smiled at him as she moved past her towards the stairs. He hesitated for a moment, then started to ascend the stairway slowly, as something inside his chest tightened up and he found himself on the defensive. Watching the door, he noticed a bright flash of light from the crack at the bottom and used a burst of speed to run up and knock the door down.

Inside he saw Al against a wall, an arm completely shattered, a few pieces of metal were scattered throughout the room. By the window he saw Scar with a navy blue bundle over one shoulder. As the tall man turned and looked at the golden haired Elric brother, all he did was glare.

"I expected more from a State Alchemist" was all Scar said before he leapt from the second story window and down to the street. Edward ran after him and followed out the window to the ground and gave chase. As he ran after Scar he noticed that the bundle the man was carrying was being held by his right arm; the same one that was covered by the glyphs of the Human Transmutation Circle. As Edward rounded a corner, into an alley, he saw that Scar was presumably trapped and the man turned to face Edward.

Edward stopped in his tracked as he was finally able to see the front of the bundle Scar it. The pale, unconscious form of Roy Mustang almost sent Edward into a panic. Scar practically had a hostage, and Edward knew that if he made one move in anyway, Roy would be more than dead. "Scar..." he said through his teeth. Scar then took a couple steps back towards the wall and shifted Roy over to the other shoulder so that he could place his right hand against the cement. All Edward could do was watch as the black glyphs changed color and glowed a bright blue and suddenly there was an explosion of rock, dust, and debris that filled the air.

The sound of boots against the ground could be heard coming down the street quickly and Edward tried to watch where Scar went, but whenever he opened his eyes they stung because of all the dust. He coughed and fell back a couple steps.

"Edward!" a voice said behind him, and he tried to look up to see who it was, but every time he tried to open his eyes, the dust only stung more and he had to close them again.

"Havok." Edward groaned as he rubbed his eyes frantically.

"What happened?" Havok asked quickly handling Edward a canteen. He watched as Edward splashed from water up into his eyes, then tilted his head back and poured the whole thing over his face.

"Scar..." Edward said looking back at Havok, "He took Colonel Mustang..." he explained, and at that, Havok went white.

"Go! Follow him! Colonel Mustang's in great danger! Move! Move! MOVE!" Havok shouted, "Inform the others as well! GO!"

"I'll help too...it's the least I can do...all I ask is for some scrap metal." Edward said straightening his stance. Havok looked at him curiously, but had learned long ago not to ask questions in regards to the Elric brother's requests.

"All right...come back to headquarters first, something will be arranged there...there's also someone else that needs to be informed." Havok said looking down at Edward.

"Right. I'll go get Al and we'll meet you there." Edward said, and with that he turned and ran back towards Gracia's.

"Go! Seal off the east exits of the city. I don't care how long it will take just do it!" Hawkeye shouted into the phone, then slammed it down, but almost as soon as she hung up one, the other rang. "The north entrance is sealed? Good, don't let anyone in or out, understand!" she hung up the other phone and grabbed onto her head. Scar was on the move and they needed to make sure they found him so they could get him out of the city, at least until the first crisis was resolved. She glanced up at the clock and saw that it was 3:30, almost time for the next drop. She hadn't even thought about it since the last sighting if Scar had come over the line. Riza looked up hearing a knock on the door and she sat up fully at the desk, "Come in." she said trying to sound as civil as she could.

Havok walked in and slowly took off his blue cap as he walked forward, keeping his eyes lowered slightly as he moved. As he came closer, a feeling of dread quickly came over Hawkeye and she moved her hands off the desk to hide the fact they were now shaking, 'God no..' she thought as she continued to watch Havok. She didn't even notice Edward and Alphonse Elric step into the room and stay back by the wall. Al was still missing an arm, and a couple chips of metal would still fall periodically.

"Lieutenant..." she managed to say as Havok stopped in front of her desk. She bit her bottom lip slightly as Havok seemed to be trying to build up the courage to simply take.

"We have a situation..." he started, "Scar..." he took a deep breath, "Scar as taken Colonel Mustang." Havok closed his eyes after he spoke, as did Edward, and all could only turn away. They wanted to give Hawkeye her dignity as she desperately tried to keep herself under control, but they all knew that she was failing, and failing miserably.

"Why..." she mumbled starring downward, and the suddenness of her words caught everyone's attention, "Why couldn't I have been there..." she clenched both her fists tightly and lowered her head, her eyes once again closed tightly to hold anything back that might come out.

"Lieutenant..." Havok said looking at Hawkeye with sad eyes. Edward looked towards the floor and clenched his jaw, he couldn't help but feel somewhat responsible for what happened and now, the one person Roy Mustang wasn't to see happy more than anything else in the world was suddenly the most miserable person he knew.


	4. Chapter4

An Alchemist's Ransom

-Chapter 4-

Roy had been sitting in the chair watching Al pace in the room. He was trying to assure him that Edward would be all right and would be back soon. He hadn't seen the dark silhouette appear in the window, and the only thing that both of them heard was the sound of shattering glass. They both jumped to see what was going on, but Scar had the upper hand and the element of surprise.

Al had moved to stand between Scar and Roy, and had managed to get in a few good punches, but Scar was able to grab onto Al's right arm, and used the destructive power of his arm to shatter Al's. with Al being taken back by the shock of losing his arm, Scar moved to the side and managed to knock Al into one of the side walls.

It was then when Scar turned to Roy, from the way the sun shown into the room, and also because of the light breeze that was coming through the window, Scar looked like a menacing creature that was about to descend upon its pray. Roy took a step back and snapped his fingers, causing an invisible spark to ignite the air in the room causing a stream of fire to shoot out towards Scar. The fire seemed to do some damage, but Roy wasn't expecting Scar to hold up his arm with the black glyphs on it. His eyes had widened as the lines seemed to get white hot and the fire around Scar, and even in the whole room dissipated, then a ball of invisible force slammed into Roy, sending him flying into the back wall. He had hit his head on the wall hard and now everything was getting hazy around the edges.

Roy was certain he was going to die, and he could feel nothing but fear as the quickly fading form of Scar came to stand over him. As the glyph-covered right arm reached down towards him, Roy Mustang's world had gone back.

Havok drove the car towards the last place witnesses said they saw Scar. Hawkeye just watched out the passenger side window as they passed through the city. Edward and Al had agreed to check the back streets and any other areas Scar might have gone, even some reasons the military had already checked, just to make sure that nothing had been overlooked. A part of Riza wanted to strangle both Elric bothers, but a much larger part of her was grateful they were so willing to help in this dire situation.

They pulled up to here a large group of officers were waiting and stopped the car. The officers watched attentively as Havok got out of the car and moved over to Hawkeye's side, waiting a moment before opening the door. She was glad Havok had walked around to let her out, it gave her time to collect herself before she stood before the other officers. When she stopped out of the car, she walked towards the troops, who saluted her as she came closer to them. She saluted back, then called them to attention.

"The car situation has become far more dire. Colonel Mustang has gone missing, and there is reason to believe that Scar is the cause of his disappearance. Use extreme caution when you go into suspected areas, and even when simply walking from door to door, he could be anywhere. Treat this as delicately as you would a hostage situation, and if you do find them, contact the higher officers at once, do not attempt to handle the situation alone. Consider Scar to be armed and very dangerous. Dismissed!" and with that, Hawkeye saluted the officers again, who then quickly dispersed and went back to their posts, some started off down the street while others even piled into vehicles and drove off. Hawkeye watched them for a moment, then sighed, she just wanted this day to be over.

Edward and Al stood in the courtyard of the Military Headquarters as they waited for the items Edward had asked for. It seemed like forever before Fury came out carrying what looked like a very heavy sheet, with Hawkeye's dog, Black Hayete following close behind.

Once Fury made it to the brothers, he dropped the sheet and a clanking sound could be head from amongst the folds, and he began to rub his arms to try and alleviate the soreness. Edward then knelt down and began to unfold the sheet.

"I wasn't sure if that would be enough, but it was all I could carry." Fury explained.

"This should be fine." Edward said as he started to sort out the pieces of metal, "Al, ready?" he asked.

"Yup." Al said as he sat next to the sheet. Edward closed his eyes for a moment, then clapped his hands together, placing one hand above the sheet covered with pieces of metal, the other one on Al's body. A circle then formed below and the metal pieces rose up off the sheet and began to dissolve away, whole Al also began to defy the laws of gravity and his arm started to reform.

The whole process took only a few minutes, and when it was done the metal scraps were completely gone, and Al seemed a little shinier than he did before, along with a new arm.

"Thank you Major Fury." Al said giving a slight bow.

"No problem at all, now please...go find Colonel Mustang...for the Lieutenant's sake." Fury said petting Black Hayete.

"You can count on us." Edward said pointed to himself and Al, "Let's go!" and with that, they both turned and ran out of the courtyard.

They moved through the city around the military stations and through the alleyways. They started their actual investigation in the alley Scar had made his escape from. There was yellow tape crossed in the front of the large gaping hole in the wall, but because they had been given military clearance, the yellow tape wasn't about the stop Edward and Alphonse Elric. They stepped through the wall and found a large open tunnel that lead down through the city. Before they went any further though, Edward left the tunnel and went to the investigation team that had been assigned to that scene.

"Hey there." Edward said raising a hand up to the officers. One of them, an older man between the ages of 32 and 36 with slightly tan skin and black hair that was starting to thin turned and looked at him.

"Can I help you?" the man asked.

"I'm going to need one of those flashlights over there.' Edward said pointed toward a row of metal flashlights by the van the officers were using.

"...certainly." the man said, he hesitated for a moment until he saw the chain that belong to the pocket watch All State Alchemists were given upon passing the exams. After that he walked over and grabbed a flashlight along with a couple batteries, then came back and handed them over to Edward, "good luck." them man said saluting him before going back to the map another officer had unfolded.

With that, Edward rejoined Al in the turned and turned on the flashlight. They walked for a while, periodically passing parts that looked like they had been forced, or blown open. 'Follow the path of destruction' was they plan they had decided to follow.

"It was really fast..." Al said after they were for enough down the tunnel no one could hear the echoes from their talking.

"huh?" Edward said looking up at Al.

"I couldn't protect Colonel Mustang, I tried but I couldn't get up...I'm sorry..." Al said.

"Hey, it wasn't your fault, I shouldn't have taken his watch, he probably would have stood a chance then..." Edward said patting Al on the back. They walked in silence for quite some time, the tunnel looking like it might never end.


	5. Chapter5

An Alchemist's Ransom

-Chapter 5-

It took a few minutes for everything to come into focus and even longer for Roy to realize where he even was. The stabbing pain in his head only added to the difficult task of trying to bring everything into focus. He soon figured out that he was laying on his side against a wall. He tried to move, but a bolt of pain shot through his body. He went to grab his head, but discovered that his hands were bound behind his back. Wincing, trying to force away the pain, he looked around the area.

In a corner he finally saw Scar looking out the corner of a window. As soon as he saw the tall man, the memory of what happened washed over and hit him like a cold shower after a night of heavy drinking. After that he began to try and force himself up into a sitting position, ignoring the pain.

Scar turned and looked at him over the top of his sunglasses, simply watching. He wanted to mock the Flame Alchemist, but seeing him actually sit himself up showed Scar just how much determination and will power Roy Mustang really had.

"Scar!" Roy shouted, but quickly winces from the pain and once he sat up a thin dark red stain could be seen trailing from his head next to his left eye.

"What State Alchemist?" Scar asked glaring at him.

"Release me this instant!" Roy called back, "Or else--"

"Or else what? You'll burn me? Not likely, I look care of a couple problems before you came to." Scar said letting two pieces of fabric fall to the floor. Roy could only assume they were from his specially made gloves. Moving his fingers over his hands Roy could feel where fabric ended and the back of his hands began.

"If you hate State Alchemists so much why didn't you just kill me?" Roy asked through his now clenched teeth.

I was going to, but then I heard the Full Metal one come in downstairs. It was far too tempting, to lure out the Full Metal Alchemist by taking the Flame Alchemist. Don't kid yourself though, I did intent on killing you, and I still plan on doing so at the more opportune time. So make peace with whatever heretic god you might follow." Scar said, as he talked he clenched his right hand into a fist.

"You don't get away with his, there's probably an exceedingly large task force out there to capture you right now." Roy said

"I'm not afraid of the Military. You've seen what I can do, I'll do that to every single one of them...even...that little blonde you keep so close." Scar said and he watched as Roy struggled with his restraints, trying to get over to Scar, actually stumbling a little and eventually falling forward onto the floor.

"Don't touch her..." Roy said glaring up at Scar, once again talking through his teeth.

"Interesting reaction...State Alchemist." Scar said kneeling down to get a better look at Roy, "Now what happened last time makes a little more sense." It took Roy a moment to recall exactly what incident Scar was talking about, but those memories flooded back to him; they had once cornered Scar, shortly after he started to fight with the Elric brothers, Hawkeye had ran over and knocked Roy to the ground so that if Scar wanted to go after him, he'd had to go through her first.

Roy could only look away after he remembered that and moved to sit back up. "Don't you dare touch her..." he said in a low voice, Scar only smirked and moved back to the window. Roy wanted to get out of there, now more than ever, but, a large part of him no longer wanted to be rescued.

Riza Hawkeye stared blankly forward from the passenger's seat of the car. She knew she should be out there, giving orders, but she also wanted to be ready if they needed to leave quickly. She made it seem like she was looking through some papers, and she soon came out holding the ransom letters.

"Are we to assume they're connected?" Havok asked after looking over when he heard the car door shut.

"Why not?" Hawkeye asked once she make it up to him.

"Well...I can understand why they might be connected, but think about it, why would go you through all the trouble of keeping a man hidden, the right before you're to get the second ransom, make it more than obvious that you have someone, not just someone, Colonel Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist." Havok explained, then lowered his voice, "I know you want to make it easier by putting it all into one case, but...I'm sorry Lieutenant..." he said making sure only she could hear.

"...I know, but, I guess I'm just upset at whoever had him before. They didn't go so far as to protect him from other possible captors..." Hawkeye said looking away from Havok, "...I couldn't protect him..." she looked down then closed her eyes.

"Hawkeye!" Havok snapped, then grabbed onto both her shoulders, causing her to look up at him with widened brown eyes, "Listen to yourself, stop blaming yourself for what happened, it wasn't your fault, and I'm sure as hell that no one else blames you, especially not Colonel Mustang! If you had been there, whenever Scar took him, and you had been in Alphonse Elric's place, what do you think would have happened to your arm! You might have even been killed, and how do you think Colonel Mustang would have felt then if you had gotten hurt! Damnit Riza, he wants to protect you too!" Havok told her, never once letting go of her shoulders.

"...Roy..." she whispered, her hands losing their grip on the letters causing them to fall towards the ground. She gave in at that moment as she brought her hands to the middle of her chest and almost fell forward as the test she'd been trying to hold back for so long finally began to overflow.

"Lieutenant..." Havok said moving his hands from Hawkeye's shoulders to her back as he held her tightly, "I may not be the Colonel...but, I hope this'll do for now." he said letting her cry against him, "...we'll get him back...I swear it."

Edward moved the flashlight from left to right across the possible paths they had to take. While they were walking, the brothers came across a fork in the tunnel. The light went down, with no indication as to how far down either tunnel went.

"Great." Edward said looking up at Al.

"Which way should we go?" Al asked looking down both paths.

"I think we'll have to split up, it'll cover more ground that way." Edward explained.

"All right..." Al said turning slightly to the right, "Yell if you see anything."

"Right." and with that Edward ran down the right path.

Neither of them were sure how long they were going down the paths, but eventually the scenery began to repeat itself more and more for both of them. There was evidence of an explosion every 50 feet or so. Edward walked until he saw another blast area then stopped, 'How much time did he have...how fast was he?' he though moving the flashlight around the area. He scratched his head and took another look around.

"Edward!" came the echoing call of Al from off in the distance.

"Al!" Edward shouted back, and he almost dropped the flashlight as he turned around an ran.

Al was faced with a very big problem, while walking, practically in the dark, he hadn't seen a patch of mud, and unfortunately had gotten stuck. He hadn't realized just how much of a problem he had until he went to pull his leg out, and he started to sink and his hands also became stuck. He looked around until he thought he saw a bar above his head. He tried to reach up for it with his head, but only sank further.

"Edward!!" he cried out, "Edward hurry!!" Al cried out again.

"Al!" he heard from behind him, and Al managed to turn his head enough to see a bouncing light quickly coming down the tunnel. Edward gave him an odd look when he finally got to his brother, and if Al's eyes could water, or show any real emotion they would be light two waterfalls doing the sides of his face.

"Help..." Al whimpered. Edward then clapped his hands together and placed his hands on the mud, causing it to harden and raise up, then he did it again to heat the air around the newly formed stone to make it crack and expand enough so that Al could break it.

Al then stood up on top of the stone and hit his head on the pipe he had tried to reach. Edward blinked a couple times, then moved the light up to the bar and almost jumped on Al to get to it.

"It's a ladder!" Edward said and Al looked over his shoulder at it, they couldn't tell how high it went, but they both agreed there wasn't really anywhere else Scar could have gone. Al gave Edward a boost and they began to climb up.

Roy had managed to move next to a window, but even then it didn't help him figure out where we was. Outside the window was a large open warehouse, it looked like it had been left alone for a while, but there were also several of them in this city. While he figured Scar was distracted, Roy would work on the binding on his wrists, there were a couple points when they dug into his skin, but Roy wasn't about to show his captor those winces of pain. Though he'd watch out the window, Roy kept an eye on Scar's actions; he was still watching out the window, and Roy assumed that it faced outside.

"How long do you plan on holding up here?" Roy finally asked after watching Scar for a while

"As long as _I_ need to." he said, he gave Roy a hard stare as he emphasized 'I'

Roy felt like he could simply give up, maybe if he did, Scar wouldn't see him as good enough pray, too weak even for him too kill. Then again, Roy thought about when he tried to bring a gun to his head in Ishbal, and how Maes Hughes had stopped him, then how Roy silently swore to protect Gracia and Elicia for Hughes after he had fallen. Then there was Hawkeye, he felt so bad for what happened this day, and now more than ever he was expected to be shot.

"I'd rather take a bullet from my own officers then bow down and let you kill me" Roy said glaring at Scar. He tried to move again, as Scar walked up to him, but Roy's back was already to the wall, so there wasn't much he could do when Scar grabbed him by the collar of his uniform.

"Don't _tempt_ me State Alchemist," Scar said through his teeth as he clenched his jaw. Roy noticed that he was being held up by Scar's right arm and suddenly found himself fighting to keep a straight face. Not seeing Roy back down, Scar pushed him back to the floor so that Roy had to force himself back into a sitting position.

Roy then took his place back next to the window and looked out to the floor below. He thought for a moment that his eyes were playing tricks on him when he thought he saw a small hatch move in a far corner of the warehouse. He blinked hard a couple times to try and focus his eyes, but he was certain he wasn't hallucinating when streaks of bright blue shot up through the floor where he had seen the hatch and soon after they disappeared, Edward pulled himself up and was soon followed by Al.

"Oh cra--!" Roy whispered, but stopped himself, he glanced over his shoulder and saw that Scar didn't seem to notice, he then turned back to watch as Edward and Al surveyed the warehouse and began to walk around. He wanted to shout down to them to run away, but Roy figured that Scar would kill him if he made any indication there were others in the warehouse. Roy looked down and kept the brothers in the corner of his eye and went back to working on the bindings on his wrists.

Hawkeye picked up the papers she had stopped and stayed knelt down for a few minutes. She couldn't believe what she had done, but she had to admit that she felt at least somewhere better. Standing up and walking back towards the car, both her and Havok were frozen by surprise when the phone rang. They both looked at each other, then Hawkeye moved to pick up the receiver, "Hawkeye here." she said, then dropped the papers again and grabbed the phone with both hands, "Edward!" at that Havok and the others looked towards her, "A warehouse? All right, we're on our way." with that she hung up the phone and turned around, "Let's move people!" she shouted, and at that, she grabbed the ransom notes and dashed for the car.


	6. Chapter6

Disclaimer: somewhere, in this chapter, is a typo, where ever it is, i believe it should be 'Large' then again...i can't find it so please, use your best judgment.

An Alchemist's Ransom

-Chapter 6-

Edward hung up the phone and took another quick glance around the area. They had to move outside of the warehouse to make the call out to Hawkeye and Havok, and if what they had seen in the window was either Roy or Scar, they didn't want to be caught talking on the phone on the warehouse's floor.

"What do we do now?" Al asked after Edward hung up.

"We're going back into that warehouse and try to find a way into that room." Edward explained moving back towards the door which they had kept open slightly to make it easier to get back inside.

"What are we going to do if Colonel Mustang is up there with Scar? He'll try to kill you." Al said starting after his brother.

"I don't think we have much of a choice." Edward said hesitating before slipping through the door. Al stood there for a moment, simply thinking about what his brother had said and same to the same conclusion; What choice did they have?

Walking around the floor of the warehouse, the brothers looked around for a door, or a set of stairs that might lead up to the upper office, but for some reason, where ever a door should have been there was only smooth wall, and when they did find a flight of stairs, they lead to nothing. They were also careful to stay out of the view of the upper office window. Edward could barely see what vaguely looked like someone's head, he just didn't want to risk it being Scar's. when they had walked the perimeter a second time, Edward dropped to his knees and scratched his head.

"Where is the stupid door!!" he shouted upward.

"Edward!" Al snapped at him and moved to cup his large metal hand over his brother's mouth. They sat in silence and waited, Edward realizing his mistake, only held his breath.

Scar spun around quickly and moved to look out Roy's window, he knew that voice all too well, and he didn't want to hear it right now that was for sure. Roy quickly moved to the side so that he was as far away from Scar as he possibly could be, the tall man's red eyes now seemed to burn with a newly heated fire. Roy had heard the yell too, he didn't know if it was all part of an elaborate plan of Scar's or not that Edward couldn't find a door, but also not knowing how long he had been out wasn't helping.

Scar moved away from Roy's window and back to the one that faced outside. He moved quickly to the corner as something caught his attention. Roy tensed up as Scar looked back at him with hateful eyes, and it was that look that told Roy what Scar had seen.

Roy moved back now and peered out his window, quickly glancing around to spy even the slightest hints of movement. When he didn't see anything he moved so that his back was against the wall and started at the wrist bindings more vigorously than ever, most of whatever pain was being caused had numbed itself, which was probably for the best because Roy was sure he was more than a little cut up, 'Glad this isn't piano wire..' he thought to himself. He wanted to jump for joy when he felt part of the restraints slack slightly. It was only a matter of time now because he could use alchemy again, even if he was going to be slower than usual, it was still better than nothing.

After about 5 minutes, Edward moved slowly with his back against the wall to a position underneath the office. Once Al had caught up with him, he turned around and tapped the wall in a few places, and eventually found an area that sounded duller than the rest of the wall. He then clapped his hands together and placed them against the way, streaks of blue energy moved along the wall to form the outline of an entryway, then that part of the wall itself turned into dust. As soon as it cleared they moved in and discovered a hallway that was dark, dusty, and covered by cobwebs.

Moving along the old floor, Edward took the flashlight back out and pointed it in front of him, "This whole place must have been abandoned a while ago." Edward said looking around, Al simply nodded. They walked until they found a door with a dust-covered signed, and Edward moved his sleeve over his hand and rubbed away most of the dust off of it to reveal the words 'Employees only'

"Guess we go in." Al said looking over his brother's shoulder. Edward nodded and tested to see if the door was locked. He held his breath as it started to creak open loudly and Al quickly grabbed the door knob in order to get the noise to stop. They both stood there and waited a few minutes, just to make sure they hadn't been heard before continuing through the door.

When they started in they were faced with a flight of stairs and as soon as Edward saw them he began to run up them as quickly as he could, with Al following as close as he could. The stairs turned and opened into a long hallway and Edward stopped and started to creep below the windows of the many doors that lined the hall. Seeing that each one was covered by a thick layer of dust, Al stayed against the back wall and moved as slowly and quietly as he could. As they continued on, Al pointed out a set of foot prints in the layer of dust that covered the hallway. Edward's eyes followed the newly discovered trail and noticed that it turned into a room at the end of the hallway.

Edward motioned for Al to stay back to be ready, then he took off down the hall, dropping to his legs and sliding in order to stop under the window of that door. As he was still moving he clapped his hands together and placed them against the door.

Roy wanted to jump back, but he realized there really wasn't anywhere for him to go when the door blew open. Scar spun around and clenched his right arm into a tight fist as the form of Edward Elric could be seen in the slowly settling dust.

"That's my prisoner, and it would be wise of you to return him." Edward said getting to his feet. Scar glared back towards Roy, who only nodded at Edward.

"Not likely." Scar said and with that, he put his right arm against the wall, causing the glyphs to glow as a bolt of red went up through the wall to a fuse box. Edward's eyes widened and he quickly dove to get out of the way as the sparks caused the fuse box to ignite. Before the explosion consumed everyone in the building, Al managed to pull out his chalk and draw his circle on the floor, then placed his hands on it to build a wall upwards to redirect to force of the blast to above the building.

Havok slammed on the brakes and Hawkeye had to brace herself as the car came to a hard stop. The roof of one of the warehouses had just blown off and now smoke was billowing towards the sky.

"Holy s--!" Havok said, but caught himself as his cigarette almost fell out of his mouth.

"Colonel Mustang!" Hawkeye shouted, she seemed about ready to jump out of the vehicle and run, so Havok stopped on the gas and started in the direction of the warehouse. As they got closer, Hawkeye pulled out her pistols and made sure they were full and cleaned.

"Do we have a plan?" Havok asked as they got even closer. "Aside from getting the Colonel out safely"

"Not really." Hawkeye said holding out of her guns to make sure the arm was straight, "The Elric brothers are there now, we at least have a good chance….we'll get him out while Scar is distracted then get him man out of town." She explained as she put her guns back in their holsters. It was only a matter of time now, soon Roy Mustang would be all right and right where he needed to be; where ever Hawkeye could see him. She also needed to talk to the Elric brothers, something just wasn't sitting right with her.

Edward dove towards Scar with the new sharpened point of the automail arm and began to try and slice at him while also working to avoid Scar's right arm. Roy was working on getting the last of his restraints off when he had to duck out of the way as a jagged piece of the wall shot outward from above his head. He was going to shout at Edward, but bit his tongue when he saw that it had been used to block Scar. He then managed to roll out of the way just as the material broke under the man's weight.

Roy hurriedly went back to trying to undo the restraints, at least then he could move decently well. It was hard to do while he was also keeping an eye on Edward and Scar's fight. He never saw Al come up behind him, nor did he even notice the other brother until he felt every restraint slack. He moved his hands in front of him and rubbed his wrists.

"Thank you." he said pushing himself to his feet. He was able to move right before another arch of red sparks ran along the wall next to him,

"Are you ok Colonel Mustang?" Al asked moving with him.

"I've been better. Alphonse, those two pieces of fabric, can you get them and repair my gloves?" Roy asked before once again needing to move to the side."Sure!" Al said, he looked around quickly and spotted the two pieces of fabric in the middle of the room, he was going to run over and grab them when he noticed that Edward was a few inches from them. He thought for a moment and drew his circle on the floor with his chalk, then looked over at his brother, "Edward! Jump!" he shouted and hoped with all his might that Edward head him, as he placed his hands down onto the circle, the floor cracked a little and a line started to move in a circle around the fabric.

Edward saw Al use Alchemist out of the corner of his eye and dove to the side, clipping Scar's shoulder with his blade. Scar, not fully expected the sudden move tripped slightly from the hit, but the rising crack in the floor caused him to stumble back a few feet. As the combatants regained their footing, the cracks formed a raised circle and Al began to make it move, drawing the pieces of fabric closer. Roy stood ready to grab them incase Scar realized what they were doing. When the pieces were a couple feet away, Roy grabbed them anyway as a precaution and had to jump back as Scar and Edward went back to fighting.

Al reached for the pieces, but right before Roy was able to give them to him, he was knocked down from behind. "Colonel Mustang!" Al shouted and when he looked up to saw Scar standing over Roy, who was now struggling to get back to his feet.

Hawkeye was out of the car before it had even stopped and was well on her way to the warehouse by the time Havok and a few other officers caught up to her. When they made it to the harge doors, they didn't even bother to check to see if they were unlocked, simply busted it down. Both Hawkeye and Havok had their guns drawn as soon as they made it inside and looked around the open area. Looking up their saw red and blue flashes and the forms of two people moving quickly inside the upper office.

"Lieutenant!" Havok shouted as Hawkeye ran forward and lined up a shot. When she fired he could tell that she'd never intended to hit anyone, but the way the bullet hit caused the glass to shatter and fall from the frame.

Everything froze in the office as the window suddenly shattered and a bullet hole appeared in the ceiling, the sound of gunfire continued to echo throughout the warehouse. Scar looked around at his possible targets, then smirked towards Roy. Everyone in the room went on the sudden defensive, ready to all out attack Scar if he made any move towards Roy. They watched him carefully as he took a few steps backwards toward the now broken window and looked over his shoulder. Move his arm back, Scar knocked out the rest of the glass, but continued to smirk towards Roy Mustang. The tall man glanced over his shoulder once again, then looked back at Roy, the smirk never leaving his face. Without a word, Scar then turned around, placed his hand against the wall to blow it open, then jumped. It only took a moment for Roy's fears to be realized and he quickly moved towards the newly formed opening.

"Riza!"


	7. Chapter 7

An Alchemist's Ransom

-Chapter 7-

Dust, smoke and debris was quickly filling the warehouse and down below the office Hawkeye and Havok had to pull back a little because of the lowered visibility. After taking a few steps back, Hawkeye turned around and looked around; her eyes were stinging, but that didn't matter after she looked up and saw a shadow quickly descending upon her from above. She raised her gun again and took aim, but found it was very difficult to aim because of all the dust in her eyes. She managed to get off a couple shots, but had to move back knowing deep down she hadn't hit her target.

Hawkeye stood with her gun aimed as the dust continued to settle. She felt herself almost freeze as the figure landed on the floor, stood up straight, then began to close the gap between itself and Hawkeye. As Scar pushed past the wall of debris Hawkeye fired off a few more shots at him, one hit him in the right shoulder, another in his lower left arm. The third bullet barely missed his head and what disturbed her the most was that he didn't even flinch. Scar then shot forward and Hawkeye went to fire off another round at the man, but felt her hand begin to shake when all she heard was a clicking sound coming from her pistol. Realizing her gun was empty, she then quickly turned to try and get to some sort of cover.

"Riza!" Roy shouted looking over the edge of the newly formed opening. His dark eyes darted back and forth as he tried to see through the cloud down below. The gunshots he heard almost stopped his heart several times because it meant that the more Hawkeye fired her gun, the less likely it was Scar was going down. He was so focused on trying to find the people below the office, Roy didn't notice Edward run over and also look down, his fists clenched at his sides.

Al was behind them kneeling on the floor and drawing his circle as quickly as he could, with Roy's gloves and the pieces with his flame symbol on them in the center. He placed his hands just on the outside of the circle and the power of Al's alchemy began to repair the gloves as quickly as he could make it. He was worried about what might happen to the officers down below and also wanted to do everything in his power to help.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion as Scar rushed up to Hawkeye. She tried to move and duck out of the way, but was pulled backwards as a tight grip wrapped around her right wrist. She pulled forward a bit, but fighting Scar's strength wasn't an option as she was pulled upwards. Scar pulled her closer to him and soon Hawkeye was looking into the deep red eyes of the Ishballian man, she tried to struggle and hit him against the head with the butt of her pistol, but he was able to grab her other wrist and twist it down, causing her to drop the empty gun.

Riza winced as she could feel her bone close to snapping because of how her arm was being twisted. She wanted to kick him, but knew that it wouldn't have much force behind it because she was barely touching the ground. Her body was telling her to flee and to get as far away as possible, even if that meant breaking her arm against Scar's grip, but froze suddenly as out of the corner of her eye she saw the glyphs on Scar's arm begin to glow.

She closed her eyes tightly and clenched her teeth as the glyphs began to turn red and a warm sensation was starting to creep up her right arm, and as Scar tightened his grip on her left arm even more. Everything began to flash before her eyes at once and she thought for those moments that her life was about to end; completing the training at the academy, first being assigned to the Central Headquarters of the Military, first being given the rank of First Lieutenant under the State Alchemist Colonel Roy Mustang.

Havok watched froze in place, his gun lowered slightly, at a total loss as of what to do. He wanted to shoot the man in the head, but knew that the very sound of the hammer being pulled back would endanger Hawkeye's life. He wasn't even sure if Scar knew he was there, but figured for right now, it might be for the best.

"Scar!" came Edward's yell from above, and the man turned to look up towards the office. Hawkeye opened her eyes and took in a gasp of air, she hadn't even realized she had been holding her breath. She noticed Scar's look and followed his gaze up. Roy was standing near the edge of the office with his cold stare seeming to pierce through Scar like a sharp piece of glass. Edward was knelt down next to him, one hand resting on the edge of the platform.

"...I warned you..." Roy said holding up his right arm to show Scar that his gloves had been repaired. The man below only glare and gritted his teeth together. "I told you not to touch her!" just as he said that Hawkeye's eyes widened slightly, but even managed to smirk through the pain as Roy snapped his fingers together and a line of fire shot towards Scar.

In order to dodge the flames, Scar was forced to throw Hawkeye to the side and he had to dive in the other direction to get away. He rolled a bit to get out anything that had sparked on his clothes, but quickly went to stand up. He wasn't expecting to hear shots from behind and tried to duck as Havok fired his gun at the man. One grazed his back, but Scar was able to get out of the way of the other shots.

From above Edward clapped his hands together and hit them against the floor, the crackling blue energy went into the material and used it to form a spiraling path to the floor below. Even before it had touched the floor below, Roy was on it and hurrying downward, managing to keep his balance as best he could, he even jumped to the floor when it was about 6 feet above it.

Havok moved back a few feet to get closer to the door and signal to the waiting officers to hold back and to also be prepared to work as support. He then turned back and took another couple shots off at Scar, but felt the sudden urge to run as Scar turned to him and put his glyph covered arm to the floor and a line of jagged spikes shot up and began to go towards Havok. He was able to move to the entrance and get outside before the spikes slammed into it, and he then started to spout orders to go around the sides and secure the area.

Riza rubbed her arm as she forced herself back into a sitting position. She heard Havok fire shots at Scar and knew that she should also be doing her job, but was surprised that when she looked forward to see Roy standing between herself and Scar. "Colonel..." She whispered, then pushed herself to her feet. With a sudden feeling of comfort and rightness coming over her, Hawkeye pulled out her other pistol and took a sharp aim directly at Scar's head.

"I warned you..." Roy said again still glaring at the man. He then snapped his fingers again and a circle of fire erupted from the floor and formed a wall around Scar. Keeping his eyes on Scar, Edward and Al also made it down to the floor and stood behind them ready to act as back up.

"Colonel Mustang." Hawkeye said moving her hand through one of her side pockets. Roy then glanced over his shoulder and saw the familiar glint of silver that came from his pocket watch. He gave a slight smirk and held out his left hand to catch the watch as Hawkeye tossed it to him.

Just as he noticed Scar managing to move out of the wall of fire, Roy gripped the watch tightly in one hand and snapped the fingers of the other, and a now heightened wall of flames shot towards Scar. The man turned to run just before they hit, but Edward ran forward, clapped his hands and slid to the ground, causing a wall of stone to come up behind Scar in an effort to block his path. A muffle of pain could be heard as the fire engulfed the wall, but once it had all dissipated, nothing was left but a large hole in the floor.

Edward fell back to a sitting position and sighed as Roy tossed his pocket watch a couple times in his hand before placing it back in his pocket. He turned around to look at Hawkeye as she picked up the gun she had been forced to drop and was giving it a quick once-over.

"Lieutenant," he said, though part of him expected her to respond as she normally would, a good part of him was still surprised by her quick reaction and formal sounding response.

"Colonel?" she asked watching him as if waiting for an order.

"Look...about today." he started.

"Good to see you're all right, sir." Hawkeye said, Roy was slightly taken back by her comment, and the almost sound of lack of concern over his safety. It was then that Edward and Al suddenly remembered what had happened earlier in the day and Edward jumped to his feet.

"Colonel!" Edward said drawing both officer's attention.

"Yes Edward?" Roy asked looking at him curiously.

"That reminds me," Hawkeye said, looking to the oldest Elric brother, "You made it here pretty quickly from Risemb--" but before she could finish, Edward twitched and grabbed for the Colonel's arm.

"I just remembered, I need to talk to Colonel Mustang about something, sorry Lieutenant, it'll only be a second!" and with that Edward pulled Roy away, closely followed by Al. Hawkeye gave all three of them an odd look and went back to checking her gun.

She walked over to the door, being careful to avoid the spikes that had been sent after Havok, 'I told you not to touch her...' those words echoed in Hawkeye's mind just as she went to open the door. Looking back to what Havok had told her, made only made her think about it more, and also made her consider the Colonel's actions during the fight. When she opened the door, Havok greeted her with a quick salute, and his typical smirk of self satisfaction.

"The officers are working to secure this area and also looking at the sewer systems to make sure that Scar doesn't get away." he said.

"No problem Lieutenant, "Hawkeye said, "Good job." she then moved to go into the car and sit. Havok watched her for a few moments and smiled again. Already he could see the normal face of Lieutenant Elizabeth "Riza" Hawkeye coming back to life. He then sighed and closed his eyes.

"All up to you now Colonel" he said to himself then turned to watch the rest of the officers work.

Hawkeye got in the car and sat down, it was obviousl that the Elric brothers knew something about the initial disappearance, otherwise they wouldn't have reacted to Roy talking about today. She took a deep breath and watched the other officers outside as they worked to try and find Scar. Her duty was telling her to let them continue and go right back to work, but something else inside her wanted to also leap up and hug Roy just to know that he was really there. She rested her head against her hand and kept watching out the window. It seemed like everything was going to return to normal now, and that meant, that as usual, Scar would get away.

"Edward!" Roy shouted, he hated being drug around, especially by the short Full Metal Alchemist. After being pulled a few more feet, Roy managed to shake free and brush himself off.

"Hey, we still have a deal, besides we don't have much time left." Edward said turning around to look at Roy. Hearing this Roy quickly pulled out his newly returned watch and checked the time; 4:30.

"All right, here's the new, improvised plan. You get the good, I'll meet you at Gracia's house at 6:00." Roy said, "Right after we all go off duty." and with that Roy turned and quickly went towards the exit.

"Why are we stuck with the dirty work?" Edward asked looking up at Al, his brother only shrugged and they both watched Roy leave the warehouse. No words were needed when they both agreed that they just wanted this day to be over.


	8. Epilogue

An Alchemist's Ransom

-Epilogue-

Hawkeye put her long black coat over one arm as she walked down the hallway. Black Hayete walked beside her, looking ahead with almost the same focused look she had. She nodded to a few officers she past in the hall and eventually made it to the offices of Colonel Roy Mustang. She hesitated slightly as her hand wrapped around the door knob, 'I told you not to touch her!' those words hadn't stopped repeated themselves since the day before in the warehouse. Even her dreams that night had been nothing but a replay of those events.

She pushed open the door and as usual the men around the table turned to look at her. The only thing that was different was that she noticed Havok turn and snicker to himself. "What?" she asked giving the men an odd look, moving over to her desk and placing her coat on the back of the chair.

"The Colonel would like to talk to debrief you about yesterday." Fury said looking over his shoulder. Hawkeye watched as Black Hayete moved over to sit next to the main table, she then nodded and turned towards the Colonel's office. Knocking on the door a couple of time, she then turned the knob and stepped in.

Hawkeye felt her heart skip a beat when she turned to face Colonel Mustang's desk only to find it empty. She hurried over to it and as she moved she once again saw the window was opened. When she looked outside to the grounds below she scanned below to see if she could even see him. "Colonel Mustang!" she shouted, but got no response. She then took a step back and turned around to see another note on his desk.

She almost instinctively glared at it, but as she moved closer to the large wooden desk, she saw that the writing on the paper was no longer the messy scribbles, but was neat and almost elegant. Hawkeye then moved to sit in Roy's large leather chair as she began to read this new letter:

_"Riza Hawkeye,_

_You've been extremely patient these last few days and now it's time someone showed you just how important you truly are. If you look up you'll see the 'proper attire' for this occasion. There will be clues along the way to help you figure out where to go. I know you aren't a fan of guessing games, but I promise, you won't be disappointed._

_ Please show up for this,_

_C. R. Mustang"_

Riza couldn't help but give a slight smile as she slowly lowered the note, but kept it held loosely in one hand. She looked up to see across the office to the coat rack, where hanging on it was a light green dress. Slowly she stood up and walked over to it, the closer she got she noticed that it was sleeveless with a pair of long gloves to go with it. When she touched the material she was shocked to discover that it was satin, and pulling back the skirt of it she saw it was going to almost flow as she moved. On the hanger she found a sheer silk shawl that could cover her shoulders along with a dragonfly hair clip.

She glanced out the door to make sure none of the guys were paying any attention to her, then lifted the hanger off the rack and put the dress up to her front. Even from this angle she could tell it was going to fit like a dream, "Thank you Colonel Mustang..." she whispered to herself as she closed her eyes.

Roy paced back and forth inside the upper room of Gracia's house. Edward, Al, and even Elicia watched him walk from one side to the other. He stopped and moved his hand through his black hair, looked up at the ceiling, then sighed.

"Calm down Roy." Edward said bringing both his arms behind his head and leaning against the wall.

"It's not as easy as you might think," Roy said, then smirked slightly, the same one he gave when he knew he would put Edward into a tight spot, "You'll understand once you realize there's someone in your life you'd die for, and you just want to do something nice for them." Roy said, Al looked over to his brother and gave a slight laugh as Edward turned red, then glared at Roy.

"You just wait, when that happens, I'll be so calm you'll want to take lessons." Edward said crossing his arms in front of his chest. After a few moment Roy went back to pacing, this time with Elicia following his footsteps, trying to make every step she took as big as his.

Everyone froze as a knock came from the door and Gracia let herself in. She gave a smile and watched as Elicia ran over and hugged her leg. "Colonel Mustang, would you mind coming with me?" She said looking to him. He nodded and proceeded to follow her down the stairs.

She lead him into her room and asked him to have a seat at the edge of her bed. Roy took a look around the room and noted the pictures of Maes she still had up. He looked over and watched Gracia open and closet and begin to move some hangers to the side; the open door that faced him was still holding up a blue military uniform that at one time belonged to Brigadier General Maes Hughes. Roy smiled slightly to himself, he could almost feel Maes' hand patting him on the back, "Guess you would be proud..." he mumbled to himself.

"What was that Colonel?" Gracia asked looking over at him.

"Nothing really, just thinking about how proud Maes would be for me doing all this." He explained, Gracia got a solemn look on her face and moved to sit next to him.

"He was very proud of you...he always has been, and always will be." Gracia said, she then put her arms around Roy's shoulders and pulled him into a hug.

"Gracia?" Roy said someone confused as he watched her out of the corner of his eye.

"I miss him so much." Gracia said, Roy could feel a slight wetness gathering on his shoulder.

"I miss him too.' he said and moved his arms to hug her back, they sat there for several minutes, Roy simply letting Gracia mourn for her fallen husband once again.

Riza walked out of Roy's officer after about 5 minutes to meet the expecting eyes of the male officers. She quirked her eyebrow slightly and moved to sit at her desk. Once she did she quickly pulled out a book and buried her nose within its pages.

"Well?" came Havok's voice from the far corner of the long table, Hawkeye glanced over the top of her book to look at him, and saw that every man at the table was still watching her.

"What are you implying Lieutenant Havok?" Hawkeye said closing her eyes and the book.

"What the rest of us are wondering." Havok said smirking, "The Colonel wasn't in there was he."

"We all heard you call for him out the window." Farman said pointing to window in the back of the main office. Hawkeye looked behind her to see the large, and slightly open window. Still looking at it she glared slightly; it wasn't everyday that someone managed to pull something over on Hawkeye, but never did all of the officers she worked with do it at once.

"I was merely concerned, then I saw the note he left on his desk." she said turning around to face the others, "I was only taking that time to calm myself down, reassuring myself that it wasn't a repeat of yesterday." she explained. She then bent to the side to scratch Black Hayete behind the ears. Her fingers then felt something odd in the dog's collar and when she looked over she saw a piece of paper folded under the leather. She then pulled it out and opened it, almost getting a confused look on her fast as she read it then looked to the men.

"Lieutenant?" Breda asked leaning back in his chair.

"There's water, but no fountain, and there's food, but it's not fish?" she read, her brown eyes landed squarely on Havok who tensed up seeing that he'd been found out.

"You're always so quick Lieutenant!" Havok said scratching the back of his head. She rolled her eyes and went back to reading her book, it was one thing to sneak around Hawkeye, it was always another to play bad guessing games with her.

When Hawkeye picked up her coat at the end of the day, another piece of paper fell and landed on the floor. Black Hayete sniffed it and started to wag his tail as Riza knelt down to pick it up, 'Fury...' she though unfolding the paper. "Meet where the lights make night look like day." she read to herself. Though it was still vague, it helped her figure out that Roy had intended on meeting her at a large restaurant or theater, but she still couldn't figure out which to be exact. She then went back into Roy's officer to grab the dress and actually stopped and took a better look at it before she left. Very carefully she draped it over one arm so that it wouldn't drag and turned off the office lights.

When she locked Roy's office and turned around to exit the main room, she was stopped seeing Edward leaned against the door wearing his black shirt and pants. He looked up and smirked at her holding up his right index finger. "Yes?" she asked looking at him.

"Sorry Lieutenant, but, I can't let you go home." Edward said.

"I beg your pardon?" Riza asked giving him a very confused look.

"Don't worry, I've taken it upon myself to make all the proper arrangements, you won't be late." Edward explained, Riza only sighed and looked at the clock, it was almost 6:00 and she really didn't want to be late.

Roy stepped back into the upstairs room wearing a black suit with a light blue tie. Al clapped for him when he saw the Colonel and stood up, "You look great Colonel Mustang!" Al said, at the sound of commotion Elicia blinked her eyes open and sat up as well.

"You look pretty Mr. Mustang!" she said, her cheeks turning a little red.

"Thanks Elicia..." Roy said smiling for her, it was interesting being referred to as 'pretty' by a 2 year old, but he was going to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"They're right Colonel, it does look very good on you. I'm glad it fit right." Gracia said smiling behind him. Roy took a quick look around the room, then back to Al.

"Al, where's Edward?" he asked.

"Making the final preparations, sir." Al said sounding excited, "You're ride is waiting." Roy looked a little taken back, and then moved over to the window and saw a car with Havok sitting in the driver's seat stopped outside Gracia's house.

"Who's idea was this?" Roy asked turning around.

"Mine and my brother's, we figured it would help the evening if you were both escorted to dinner." Al explained, Roy actually blinked a couple times, then walked up to the younger brother and placed a hand on Al's shoulder.

"Thank you both..." Roy said, and with that, he turned and headed down the stairs.

Riza felt odd changing in Roy's office, even if it was empty. Edward had used alchemy to make her a mirror, and when she looked into it, Hawkeye was almost shocked to see just how well the dress fit. After thinking about it for a couple minutes, she came to the conclusion that the dress was what they had needed her measurements for. After a few more minutes, Hawkeye walked out and looked at Edward; this was the first time he had ever seen Hawkeye with her hair down, and with the new dragonfly clip, she seemed to stand out even more in the dress.

"Wow Lieutenant, you look completely different!" Edward said standing straight up, pushing back from the wall.

"Thank you Edward...I have to admit, I'm a little nervous, I'm not used to being the one surprised." Hawkeye said giving a weak smile.

"Don't worry about a thing, come on, your ride's here." he said and with that, Edward turned around and opened the door and began to lead Hawkeye down the hall.

"I have to admit, it was quite a shock to see those letters yesterday." She said as they walked.

"Sorry about that..." Edward said rubbing the back of his head, "But we were told it had to be unique and special." he said opening the entrance door for her. After Hawkeye walked through she saw a car waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs with Fury at the wheel. They walked down in silence and Edward even moved to open the back door for her.

"Thank you very much Edward Elric..." Hawkeye said moving to sit down, "but be warned...if you ever do that again...I'll kill you." she quickly flashed a threatening glare the alchemist's way as she shut the door. Edward's eyes widened after she said that and watched as the car drove off.

"Better not happen again..." was all he mumbled to himself as he ran off the military's property and made his way to the final destination.

Roy waited outside the large restaurant, once again pacing a little. He couldn't believe how nervous he was, and it was almost like no one else was even around him, he couldn't even hear anything either. He hadn't seen the other car pull up at all, and because of his nervousness he didn't notice the blonde haired, brown eyed woman watching him with a strangely calm look on her face.

"Roy." was what finally broke him out of his trance and he froze in place to lay his eyes on Hawkeye. He thought his heart had actually stopped when he looked at her, but when she gave him a small smile he knew he was alive. Now all he needed to wonder was if he was dreaming or not.

"Lieutenant, you came." he said straightening his stance looking down at her. It helped relax him more when she laughed slightly.

"Looks like you're move nervous than I am..." she said looking down slightly. Simply hearing that she was nervous too was what told Roy it was real, everything he had planned was actually happening, and nothing could screw it up.

"Well then...shall we?" He asked turning slightly, holding out his arm for her. She nodded and moved her left arm under his so that her hand was gently resting just below his elbow. As they moved in to the restaurant, they were met by the other officers, each of which held a glass of champagne in one hand. Looking down Hawkeye even noticed that Black Hayete was there, wearing a custom suit. Roy kept looking forward and saw the Elric brothers standing at either side of a table in the middle of the room, candles were lit in the center and there were two glasses set at the seats.

Roy looked down at Riza and gave a calming smile, he was careful as he moved his left hand over her fingers to place a silver ring with an emerald set in the center of it. It was at that moment he was glad he had spent his last paycheck on the ring, he was just hoping the Fuehrer would let him use his next paycheck to put money back into the military for the dress. Seeing her head starting to move, he continued to look forward towards the table. Riza looked at the ring and smiled, now things would be exactly the way they should be, and she'd always know exactly where Roy Mustang always was.


End file.
